Wireless network-on-chip technology (WiNoC) is envisioned as an enabling technology to design low-power and high-bandwidth, massive multicore architectures. The existing method of implementing a network-on-chip system with planar metal interconnects is deficient due to high latency, significant power consumption, and temperature hotspots arising out of long, multi-hop wireline paths used in data exchange. It is possible to design high-performance, robust, and energy-efficient multicore chips by adopting novel architectures inspired by complex network theory in conjunction with on-chip wireless links.
Using the small-world approach, a highly efficient network-on-chip system with both wired and wireless links can be built. Networks with the small-world property have very short average path lengths, making them particularly interesting for efficient communication with minimal resources. Neighboring cores can be connected through traditional metal wires, while widely separated cores can communicate through long-range, single-hop, wireless links. A small-world network principally has an irregular topology. Routing in irregular networks is complex, because routing methods are typically topology agnostic.